Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Sterle tried valiantly there to defend this government's record, but of course what he ignored completely—I don't think it even got a mention—was the elephant in the room, particularly in relation to Western Australia, and that is the live export trade in sheep. That has broken the relationship between the Labor government and the agricultural industry, where I have seen no issue before. That is because the justification for this policy is threadbare. It's about preferences from radical animal activist parties in inner-city seats in the eastern states in return for an entire industry out of my home state of Western Australia.

Last year I rose in this place and asked questions about the devastation of confidence that had flown through the Western Australian agricultural sector on the back of the Labor government's decision to ban live exports, and those opposite just laughed it off. But now we see it in practice. We see it in the government's own numbers—that the herd, the flock has declined in Western Australia by anywhere up to 50 per cent. Yes, there was a drought involved, and yes, there was a restocking into the eastern states. But the fact is that the lack of confidence, the banning of the live export trade, combined with that reduction in flock numbers, will mean that Labor's promise is not going to happen. You've got to remember that Labor promised to see this live export industry replaced by chilled meat exports. That's not going to happen. There aren't going to be the sheep in WA, because you have destroyed the industry. You have destroyed confidence in the industry. You have destroyed the size of the industry. Sheep numbers have declined by anywhere up to 50 per cent in two years. Lamb numbers in Western Australia are going to be down by 35 per cent this season on current estimates.

The question now is not about opening new processing facilities in WA. The question now is when the next processing facility will close down in WA, because this Labor government's policy decision has completely destroyed confidence and destroyed scale. And the people who suffer aren't just the farmers. It's the communities. It's the truckies. It's the shearers. The Labor Party, the party that was formed by striking pastoral workers and shearers in Queensland, has now turned its back on that industry. There will be no wool industry in Western Australia, as the self-replacing merino flock loses one of its key economic drivers, which is the export of the wethers from the production system. That won't come back, unless there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

That light at the end of the tunnel is that when we go to the polls—this year, maybe; probably next year—we see a Peter Dutton led Liberal coalition government that restores the trade and backs in our export partners overseas. For those who are purchasing our sheep, who have invested in their systems, who have invested in animal welfare, who have invested in taking their standards up to ours—raising their animal welfare standards up to Australian standards in order to participate in this trade—that is the light at the end of the tunnel. That is the hope for the sheep industry in my home state of WA. That is why we had truckies, shearers and farmers travel to Canberra from WA, some of whom left home three or four days ago.